Larry Shenk, Vice President of Alumni Relations, shares his notes, quotes and anecdotes from the world of baseball.

Camp Begins With A Meeting

In a large meeting room on the second floor of the Paul Owens Training Facility at Carpenter Complex, spring training 2012 started with an all-day meeting. Outside, a morning mist turned into an afternoon rain.

Ruben and his staff, plus Charlie’s staff of eight, 11 from the minor league staff and nine from the athletic training staff filled the room. Comments from Ruben and David Montgomery preceded a review of every one of the 57 players in camp.

Meanwhile at neighboring Bright House Field, several rookie and non-roster pitchers threw on the half field early in the morning; Jim Thome and Chase Utley hit in the cages; Carlos Ruiz, Cliff Lee, Brian Schneider, Hunter Pence and Ryan Howard unpacked their bags.

On Saturday, all pitchers (29) and catchers (6) will undergo physicals in the trainer’s room. Jonathan Papelbon will have a mass interview following an unofficial workout. Then, all will work out for the first time on Sunday morning (10 a.m.) at Carpenter Complex. This is the Phillies 65th consecutive year of training in Clearwater.

Ryne Sandberg is being honored at the annual Clearwater For Youth banquet on Saturday night, an event the Phillies have participated in for over 40 years.

Back Home
Single game tickets went on sale at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday. Fans arrived as early as Wednesday afternoon for the 8:30 Thursday morning opening of the ticket windows.

Over 70,000 tickets were sold, pushing the season total to 3.1 million tickets. Tickets are on sale 24 hours a day via phillies.com.

50 years ago at Connie Mack Stadium, the season total was 762,034.

New Alumni PageAfter The Game, a newsletter about Phillies Alumni, is now on phillies.com: www.phillies.com/alumni.

Hope you check in there often.

Spring Training Memories
From time to time during spring training, we’ll post memories from the current players.

Today, Jim Thome: “My first camp was with the Indians minor leaguers in 1990. Tucson, Arizona. I remember my number was 59. I had a roommate, but darn I can’t remember his name. Walking into the clubhouse full of players was the start of a whole new experience.”

(Phillies Insider will be posted Monday through Friday, starting on Feb. 20).

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